Ver. i ,^ according to the Covenant. for us, and enjoy the comforting influ Lice of thole Promifes ? that he prefcribes unto us, v. 5, 6,7. Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to vertue 1Znoivledge, and to knowledge tem.. perance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godlineJ?, and to god linejs brotherly kindne;?, and to bro,therÿ kjndnef? charity That is carefully and diligently attend to the exercife of all the Graces of the Spirit, and unto a converfation to all things b °cumin} the Gofpel. What then (hall be the Slue, if there things are attended unto ? v. 8. If thefe things be in you, and abound, ye(hall be neither barren nor unfruitful, in the kn) ledge of our Lord Jtfus Chrifl. It is not enough that thefe things be in you; that you have the fed and root of thcm from and by the Holy Ghoíi ; but you are to take care that they flour& and abound; without which, though the root of the matter niay be inyou, and fo you be not wholly devoid of fpiiitual yet you will be poor, barren, faplefs, withering creatures, all your days. But now fuppofe: that there things do abound, and we be made fruitful thereby : Why then faith he, v. i o. 1f you do thfè things ye /hall neverfall : What never fall into fin.? Nay, that is not in the Promif. ; and he that layes, when he bath done all, that he loath no f n, he is a Lyar. Or is it ne- ver fall totally from God ? No, the prefervation of the Eleet, of whom he (peaks, from total Apfraf e, is not fiafpended on Inch conditions, efpecially not on any degree of them, fuck as their abounding imports. But it is that they fhall not fall into their old fins from which they were purged , v. 9. Such Confci- ence walling, and defiling fins, as they lived in, in the time and (late of their Utiregeneracy. Thus though there be in the Covenant of Grace through Jefus Chrif, , Provilioi made of abundant fupplies for the fouls prefervation from entangling fins ; yet their Adminifration path refpeó unto our diligent attendance unto the means ofreceiving them appointed for us to walk in. And here lyes the latitude of the New Covenant ; here lyes the exercife of renewed Free-will. This is the field of free voluntaryobedience under the Adminiftration of Gofpel Grace. `there are extreams which in refpeá of the event it is not con- cerned in. To be whollyperfee7, to be free from every fin, all D 2 tailings,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=